On November 20, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The Vitebsk Regional Committee for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection has issued an appeal calling on the region's residents not to feed wild waterfowl, BELTA correspondent reports. "Even now, people can be seen near water bodies feeding birds and believing they are doing a good deed. In reality, they are only harming the birds by attracting them to stay for the winter. Feeding during the migration period, when natural food sources are depleted, turns birds into local residents dependent on humans," the appeal states. As explained to BELTA correspondent by Zhanna Aleinikova, Head of the State Control Department for the Protection and Use of Land, Forests, Fauna and Flora, Specially Protected Territories, and Waste Management of the Regional Committee, the appeal concerns wild ducks and swans. In recent years, there has been an increase in calls from citizens during the winter period reporting birds freezing in water bodies. However, the reason why swans and ducks do not fly to their wintering grounds is the unreasonable behaviour of people. In addition to disrupting the natural migration of birds, a significant ecological burden is placed on unfrozen water bodies, which become temporary habitats for entire colonies of swans and ducks. This occurs, for example, on the unfrozen Lukomlskoye Lake, which receives treated warm water from the Novolukomlskaya HPP. The ecologist asks to feed only those birds that clearly need help – the sick and injured. It is better to report such cases to district or city executive committees, where commissions have been established to provide assistance to wild animals in distress, or directly to the committee or its district branches. -0-

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